“The thing that struck me first was the market opportunity,” Skelton said. “We’ve all heard the stories that U.S. health care is a problem, but I really believe effective use of imaging technology is part of the key to dealing with this issue.”

Foundation Radiology provides around-the-clock on site and teleradiology interpretation of various scans, including X-rays, MRI and CT for small to midsize hospitals.

Skelton also saw a “great personal opportunity” by joining Foundation Radiology, which raised $10 million in April 2009 from investors, and grew employment from 27 to 66. In 2008, sales were $8.4 million, and while Foundation Radiology would not say if it reached the $24 million it forecasted a year ago, the company said it is “pleased with our current growth rate.”

Skelton, a Pittsburgh native who has lived in North Carolina for 15 years, had been senior vice president and chief operating officer of ElComp Systems, a Carnegie Mellon University spinout. He helped ElComp grow to more than $15 million in revenue prior to its 1994 acquisition by Medic Computer Systems, Raleigh, N.C., a predecessor company to Misys Healthcare Systems. Skelton eventually became Misys CEO.

In June, he joined MED3000, a Green Tree-based health care management and technology company, as executive vice president and president of its technology services division.

“Tom has spent virtually all of his career trying to make health care more productive through the use of technology, and he has a strong track record of successfully doing that,” said Koleman Karleski, managing director of Chrysalis Ventures, the Louisville-based venture capital firm that invested in Foundation Radiology last spring. “He’s a terrific fit as the company is entering its expansion stage. Our job, as the investors and board, is to ensure that it has a seasoned management team to help grow this, which is why we brought Barbara Beaudin on as CFO (last fall) and then Tom. We now think we have a team that can grow this company over the next several years.”

“The business has grown up and it’s time for more experienced managers to grow it to the next phase,” Karleski said. “This is very natural evolution.”

The company is now focused on growing clients, Skelton said, particularly in rural community hospitals in its geographic region of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.

“We want them to know who we are and how we can help them,” Skelton said.

He is in the process of moving his family back to the Pittsburgh region and learning more about his new company.

“I’m on a pretty steep learning curve and kind of drinking out of the fire hose,” he said. “It’s nice to come back to the area where I was raised and, hopefully, put myself in a situation where I get to use my Steeler season tickets on occasion.”